Magic in Colombia

For an audio version of this blog click here.

I recently spent 3 weeks in Bogota, Colombia. The choice infused my life with the energies of new adventure. It also started everything in my life moving, growing, shifting, and changing in ways I didn’t anticipate.

I am grateful for this wild world we live in. It's diverse, chaotic, wonderful, and, believe it or not, designed for our enjoyment when we approach it as such. If you are asking to have more in your life, here is your invitation to go out and be more. Do something totally random and different somewhere on this beautiful planet, close or far from home, it doesn’t matter. 

Have you ever heard the theory that the language you speak influences your behavior patterns and your worldview? I’m a lifelong lover of words and language and have been studying Spanish since 2010. That energy of adventure brought me to Bogota to immerse myself in the language, the culture, and more.  

For three weeks, I enrolled in a Spanish school in Bogota called Nueva Lengua. It's on a lovely little property in a beautiful restored brick mansion, each one of the large bedrooms became a classroom for the adventure of learning. There is a pretty little garden where we would chit-chat and eat our lunch, and the brick house was crawling with vibrant ivy. 

I came with no expectation of what or who I would meet and when I got there on the first day, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were 45 or more other students. They were such wonderful people, all of us weird enough to go to Bogota, which can be known as a very dangerous city, giving a common energy of being real adventurers. I think that if you are an adult learning a new language, you're generally reaching for something. The people in my class were a menagerie from around the world. There was a doctor, a lawyer, a pharmacist, a guy who worked for Tesla. My closest friend at the school was a German psychotherapist, the kindest, sweetest man. His plan was to bike from Bogota, which is at the top of South America, all the way down to the bottom of South America over the next 11 months. Intense.  

My Spanish teacher was one of the greatest teachers I've ever had in my life. He was so animated. He would shut the lights off and close the blinds, and illuminate the room with an outer space projector, teaching us all about the solar system in Spanish. He would also dress up like an alien. He didn't bring any judgement into these classes and in those three hour grammar lessons, I would never look at my watch once. He was so engaging. And I always did my best to take the lesson on a weird tangent and make everyone laugh, and soon, everyone else was being the light, comedic version of themselves, even those who were stiff at first. 

In the afternoons, we would have a cultural experience. On Wednesdays we would do cooking class- exploring Colombian cuisine, everything fresh and bursting with color and flavor. We would have the dance class learning salsa, merengue, and more. It was so much fun to move our bodies with these rhythms. Our teacher, Isaac, was just the happiest man in the world. We attended different museums and markets: The Museum of Gold, El Museo Nacional, a massive fruit market bearing tropical fruits from beyond my imagination.

I had the pleasure of staying with my friend Natalia. I was so pampered by her beautiful  home near the top of a mountain with her live-in housekeeper, which is common in Colombia. I was cared for with so much sweetness and generosity. I would wake up in the morning and come out of my room and she would have hot tea for me and water with lime juice, and make me delicious eggs and then pack me my healthy squash pancakes that I eat for lunch daily. I would take my lunchbox with me to school every day, and it was just the cutest thing.

It was beautiful to see the fresh juice prepared at home. There are so many exotic fruits there but my favourite fruit to make juice from is called Lulo. This traditional Colombian juice is made from the tart, citrusy, lulo fruit mixed with lime juice, water, and sugar. It's tangy and indescribable, so good. I also learned many new cooking techniques that I have brought home and enjoyed. 

I had such a great time on this trip, embracing the adventure of living. It was a really, really beautiful experience, vulnerable, full of joy and laced with courage. It has left me knowing that I need to have way more adventures. How does it get any better than this?